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Puig’s return not enough against Bumgarner

Joe Resnick
12:19 a.m. PDT April 6, 2014

Bumgarner struck out 10 while working into the seventh inning

San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner delivers against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first inning in a baseball game on Saturday, April 5, 2014, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo)(Photo: Alex Gallardo, AP)

LOS ANGELES – Everything went right for Madison Bumgarner. He pitched well, the Giants provided him more than enough offense and they played strong defense behind him. The bullpen pitched in, too.

Bumgarner struck out 10 while working into the seventh inning, and the Giants got home runs from Michael Morse, Pablo Sandoval and Buster Posey in a 7-2 victory on Sunday.

Right fielder Yasiel Puig returned to the Dodgers’ starting lineup, batting leadoff a day after he was benched by manager Don Mattingly for arriving late for stretching and batting practice before Friday’s home opener. Puig went 1 for 4 and was picked off first in the third inning for the final out with cleanup-hitter Adrian Gonzalez at the plate.

Bumgarner (1-0) was charged with two runs and eight hits over 61/3 innings in his second outing.

“I was throwing a little bit of everything,” the left-hander said. “It seemed like they had a lot of baserunners today, but I felt like I made good pitches all day. The command was there and my stuff was pretty good.”

Bumgarner is 4-1 with a 1.53 ERA in his last five starts at Chavez Ravine.

Puig came up in the seventh with the bases loaded and one out after Giants skipper Bruce Bochy replaced Bumgarner with Santiago Casilla. Puig’s flyball to right field was too shallow to score Scott Van Slyke, but pinch-hitter Andre Ethier followed with an RBI single.

A.J. Ellis tried to score behind Van Slyke and was thrown out by Hunter Pence for the third out. Mattingly came out to discuss the call with umpire Joe West and used his one challenge for a video replay ruling, which upheld the original call.

“I had to make a pretty good throw and Buster had to make a great tag,” Pence said.

Paul Maholm (0-1) gave up five runs and seven hits through 41/3 innings in his first start for the Dodgers.